It’s time for another “Once Upon a Webcomic.” This one centers around another comic I adore, “A Softer World.”

The alternate text of this comic on its original page is fantastic. It reads “First time I’ve ever wished for a Disney version,” and Joey Comeau (He’s the writer of the series, but not the photographer; that would be Emily Horne.) has a great point. Because our culture has censored so many of these old stories for modern children, we often forget that fairy tales are almost never truly happy stories, and it is only ever through great hardship that characters are sometimes (but not always) able to find their happy endings.

Take, for instance, the familiar story of Rapunzel. In its original version, Dame Gothel (the witch) cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and casts her out into the wilderness upon discovering that Rapunzel is pregnant and must have been consorting with a man. When the prince comes for Rapunzel, the witch tells him that he will never see her again. In despair, he attempts to commit suicide by leaping from the tower, but instead blinds himself when he lands face first in the thorns below. Confused, disoriented, and in pain, he wanders off into the wilderness. Rapunzel gives birth and eventually finds the prince. Her tears heal his blindness and they live happily ever after. Of course, this happy ending is only achieved after the couple has experienced great trauma and misfortune.

In many cases, fairy tales are darker than our culture seems to remember. Like Comeau, I always find it interesting when people express a desire for a “fairy tale” romance, because it reveals, as he points out, that they have probably never read any actual fairy tales.